The Hindu : Stirring a poisonous brew

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 02, 2003

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Stirring a poisonous brew

The BJP is once again turning to its core Hindutva issues for its political goals. Neena Vyas on the calibrated campaign by the VHP and the rest of the Sangh Parivar.

The VHP's sants challenge even the courts and Parliament.

AFTER THE success of divisive politics in Gujarat where the Bharatiya Janata Party won the elections handsomely, the party leadership is once again trying to further its political agenda by turning to its core Hindutva issues, which have less to do with Hinduism as a faith of the majority community and more to do with minority baiting.

And as the Ram temple at Ayodhya remains the centre-piece of this agenda, as it is the issue which helped the BJP grow by leaps and bounds to later emerge as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha, it seems that the party leadership has decided to use every ploy, find every legal loophole in an effort to frustrate a settlement of the dispute through the courts.

The plan is to hand over most of the 67 acres of Government-acquired land in Ayodhya to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad-controlled trust, the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, which has publicly announced its intention to begin construction of a Ram temple at the site, the construction plan including the disputed site where the Babri Masjid once stood. The Government has not tried to conceal this fact. The Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, has repeatedly said that if the Supreme Court was to vacate the stay it imposed on all activities on the 67 acres, the Government could, or rather would, hand over more than 60 acres of the acquired land to the VHP-controlled trust.

It is for this purpose that the Centre moved the Supreme Court to get vacated the stay it had imposed last March on all activities on that land. Last weekend, the VHP gathered together a couple of thousand `sadhus' and `sants' in the nation's capital under the banner of the Dharam Sansad to pressure the Government and indirectly also the apex court which is to hear the matter on March 6.

But the Government's move, it seems, was not only designed to please the VHP and its RSS bosses and win a few brownie points at Jhandewalan and Nagpur ahead of the annual meeting of the RSS Pratinidhi Sabha, it was also calculated to re-energise its own cadre and constituency ahead of the crucial Assembly elections later this year.

So much importance being given to the Ayodhya issue at this juncture is seen by political circles as an attempt by the BJP to test the waters and see how the Hindutva issues can be used to whip up passions, and then use these emotive issues to the hilt in the Assembly polls later. Perhaps, the BJP also wants to send out an advance warning to its allies that it has decided to give up the pretence of being committed to the NDA agenda for governance which had promised to leave aside all contentious issues (or Hindutva-related issues).

The BJP leaders seem to have calculated that the allies will continue to find one excuse or another to stick to the BJP despite the party's growing assertion of its communal agenda. After all, the Godhra-Gujarat incidents left only a minor scratch on the NDA when Ram Vilas Paswan decided to part company with the alliance.

Another factor was the BJP's need to energise its own cadre and that of the RSS and its affiliates, including the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. The BJP has always depended heavily on these RSS fronts for effective door-to-door campaigns, and nothing seems to work better than an issue which baits the minorities. Moreover, in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi where elections are scheduled for the end of this year, the Sangh has a sizeable presence.

The Economic Survey released by the Government three days ago has finally told the story of dismal performance on the economic front — lower growth rates, higher unemployment rates and falling agricultural production. The major drought last year has only added to the woes. It is no secret now that the States' finances are in a pathetic condition and there is hardly any capital available for new investments. As for the much-hyped foreign direct investment, it has simply failed to materialise for one reason or another. People are being taxed so that the State and Central Governments may spend on the salaries of Government servants. There is little money left for meaningful investments.

This is an important factor in the BJP's decision to go back to its Hindutva roots. For the last four years we have been hearing that the Vajpayee Government will make its own performance an election issue, but there are definite signs that it wants to rake up "emotive" issues so that the bread and butter ones can be forgotten and buried.

The Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, who now takes all the decisions related to the BJP organisation, made this crystal clear five days ago while addressing the BJP parliamentary party. As against the BJP's Chennai Declaration assertion three years ago that the party was firmly committed to the NDA agenda, that is, it would not rake up the contentious issues, and that the BJP had no agenda other than that of the NDA, Mr. Advani declared that his party was always committed to its core ideology. He is reported to have suggested that the Government was keen on a legislation on banning cow slaughter, on a uniform civil code, on Ayodhya to hand over land to the VHP-controlled Nyas, and to ban religious conversions throughout the country (in line with the recent law enacted by the Tamil Nadu Government). Moreover, he suggested that it was keen on doing this "with Congress support".

While some senior party leaders saw this as a ploy to force the Congress to take a stand on these issues, it was also seen as a signal to the allies. The BJP was saying as loudly and as clearly as possible that the allies can be taken for granted, they do not count, and if they want to continue the NDA experiment beyond 2004 when the Lok Sabha elections are due, the coalition would have to be formed on the BJP's ideological terms.

Some political observers feel that sharpening the Hindutva agenda means the BJP is also keeping its options open for an early Lok Sabha election, possibly soon after the five Assembly polls due in October-November this year, depending on the results.

Although the BJP again and again denies it is raking up these issues with an eye on the elections, it is clear in Madhya Pradesh the Bhojshala controversy has been raised by the saffron party this year (Assembly elections are due later this year) although the place has been closed to Hindu worshippers for several years. Why has it suddenly dawned on the BJP leader, Uma Bharti, that Hindus are being denied their right to worship goddess Saraswati at the Bhojshala?

Yet another factor is the elevation of Mr. Advani as Deputy Prime Minister. He has now to show his RSS bosses and colleagues that he is asserting himself and taking forward the Sangh ideology. There was a time when his repeated assertions about commitment to the NDA agenda did not go down too well with the Sangh Parivar.

The fact that the VHP does not treat Hindu religious sentiments with any respect is established by the fact that when the self-styled "Ram bhakts (Ram's devotees)" demolished the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, the Ram Lala idol under the main dome was carried away without any ceremony and later placed under a makeshift structure (where it stands today) all within 14 hours and again without any consecration rituals. Worse, along with the Babri Masjid several Hindu temples in its vicinity were destroyed.

And many priests of those temples are till this day at loggerheads with the VHP as much as the Babri Masjid Action Committee.

At the Maha Kumbh mela in Allahabad two years ago, heads of 13 major `akharas' (religious Hindu sects) boycotted the call given by the VHP to attend a Dharam Sansad organised there.

Some of the so-called `sants' associated with the Dharam Sansad have had criminal records. Blackmail, coercion, assault and filthy hate language are used by some of these `sants'. At the Dharam Sansad here on February 22 and 23, gutter language was used by some of these `sants' against the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr. Advani and the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi during their public addresses. In fact, they went to the extent of insulting all parliamentarians.

Finally, if the BJP and the VHP want to set right the old historical wrongs of temples destroyed under the Mughal rule or by Muslim invaders such as Ghazni and Nadir Shah, then what about the historical wrong done to the Dalits by the Brahmins and other upper castes?

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